Tag Archives: Pain

There is pain, disappointment and, of course, hard work associated with doing anything worthwhile.

I’m certainly finding that true as we’re struggling with revisions to the first draft of our screenplay for “The Prodigal Project.”

Fortunately, there are wonderful people around who continually cheer us on and affirm us.

I know, intellectually, that pain is a necessary ingredient to significant creative work. But that doesn’t keep me from wanting to get past the pain as quickly as possible.

I was recently reminded, through a daily devotional message by Richard Rohr, that it is through the pain of mystery and unknowing that we learn to listen… really listen to what God is trying to tell us.

He writes, “In terms of soul work, we dare not get rid of pain before we have learned what it has to teach us. Much that we call entertainment, vacations, or recreation are merely diversionary tactics, and they do not ‘re-create’ us at all. The word vacation is from the same root as vacuum, and means to ’empty out,’ not to fill up. One wonders how many people actually have such vacations! We must be taught HOW to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions, and some days without meaning.” – Adapted from Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, pp. 43-47, by Richard Rohr.

A more secular expression of the same idea is found in that wonderful exchange between Tom Hanks and Geena Davis in the 1992 movie, “A League of Their Own” directed by Penny Marshall and written by Kim Wilson, Kelly Candaele, Lowell Ganz, & Babaloo Mandel.

Davis’ character is quitting the baseball team because, she says, “It just got too hard.” Hanks replies, “Hard?! Of course it’s hard. It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.”